Nos & IN THE. INDIANA DEMOCRATIC PARTY, ET AL., Petitioners, v. TODD ROKITA, ET AL.,

Transcription

1 Nos & IN THE WILLIAM CRAWFORD, ET AL., v. MARION COUNTY ELECTION BOARD, ET AL., Petitioners, Respondents. INDIANA DEMOCRATIC PARTY, ET AL., Petitioners, v. TODD ROKITA, ET AL., On Writs of Certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit Respondents. BRIEF OF AMICI CURIAE THE BRENNAN CENTER FOR JUSTICE; DEMOS: A NETWORK FOR IDEAS & ACTION; LORRAINE C. MINNITE; PROJECT VOTE; AND PEOPLE FOR THE AMERICAN WAY FOUNDATION IN SUPPORT OF PETITIONERS [PHOTO ID LAW LACKS JUSTIFICATION] WENDY R. WEISER SIDNEY S. ROSDEITCHER JUSTIN LEVITT Counsel of Record RENÉE PARADIS J. ADAM SKAGGS BRENNAN CENTER FOR JUSTICE PAUL, WEISS, RIFKIND, AT NYU SCHOOL OF LAW WHARTON & GARRISON LLP 161 Avenue of the Americas 1285 Avenue of the Americas New York, New York New York, New York (212) (212) Counsel for Amici Curiae November 13, 2007

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page TABLE OF AUTHORITIES...iii INTEREST OF THE AMICI...1 SUMMARY OF THE ARGUMENT...3 ARGUMENT...6 INDIANA S PHOTO ID REQUIREMENT IS AN UNNECESSARY RESPONSE TO THE EXTREMELY UNLIKELY AND UNSUBSTANTIATED THREAT OF POLLING-PLACE IMPERSONATION FRAUD...6 A. Polling-Place Impersonation Fraud Is Highly Unlikely And Exceedingly Rare None of the Examples Cited by the Court of Appeals Indicates That Polling-Place Impersonation Fraud Is a Genuine Problem The Additional Evidence Cited by the District Court and Other Studies Show That Polling-Place Impersonation Fraud Is Not A Genuine Problem...18 B. Alleged Perceptions Or Fears of Voter Fraud Do Not Justify Indiana s Photo ID Requirement...28 i

3 C. A Photo ID Requirement Is Not Needed To Prevent Possible Impersonation Fraud Indiana s Policies for Identifying Voters Prior to the Adoption of the Photo ID Requirement Provided an Adequate Alternative to Photo ID Less Onerous Methods of Voter Identification in Other States Provide Adequate Alternatives to Photo ID...33 CONCLUSION...39 ii

4 TABLE OF AUTHORITIES FEDERAL CASES Page(s) Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1 (1976)... 29, 30 Burdick v. Takushi, 504 U.S. 428 (1992)... 6, 7 Clingman v. Beaver, 544 U.S. 581 (2005) Common Cause/Georgia v. Billups, 406 F. Supp. 2d 1326 (N.D. Ga. 2005) Common Cause/Georgia v. Billups, 504 F. Supp. 2d 1333 (N.D. Ga.), appeal filed No C (11th Cir. 2007)... 15, 36 Crawford v. Marion County Election Bd., 472 F.3d 949 (7th Cir. 2007)...passim Crawford v. Marion County Election Bd., 484 F.3d 436 (7th Cir. 2007)... 5 Indiana Democratic Party v. Rokita, 458 F. Supp. 2d 775 (S.D. Ind. 2006)...passim Lucas v. Forty-Fourth Gen. Assembly of Colo., 377 U.S. 713 (1964) iii

5 McConnell v. Fed. Election Comm n, 540 U.S. 93 (2003) McLaughlin v. N.C. Bd. of Elections, 65 F.3d 1215 (4th Cir. 1995)... 6 Munro v. Socialist Workers Party, 479 U.S. 189 (1986) New Alliance Party v. Hand, 933 F.2d 1568 (11th Cir. 1991)... 7 Purcell v. Gonzalez, 127 S. Ct. 5 (2006)... 7, 25, 30 Reform Party of Allegheny County v. Allegheny County Dep t of Elections, 174 F.3d 305 (3d Cir. 1999)... 6 Timmons v. Twin Cities New Party, 520 U.S. 351 (1997) United States v. Carolene Products Co., 304 U.S. 144 (1938)... 9 United States v. Missouri, No CV-C-NKL, 2007 WL (W.D. Mo. Apr. 13, 2007) Vieth v. Jubelirer, 541 U.S. 267 (2004)... 8 Williamson v. Lee Optical of Oklahoma, 348 U.S. 483 (1955)... 7 iv

6 STATE CASES Borders v. King County, No (Wash. Super. 2005), reprinted in 4 Election L.J. 418 (2005) In re the Protest of Election Returns & Absentee Ballots in the Nov. 4, 1997 Election for the City of Miami, 707 So. 2d 1170 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1998) Weinschenk v. State of Missouri, 203 S.W. 3d 201 (Mo. 2006)...16, 17, 30 FEDERAL STATUTES 42 U.S.C. 1973i(c) U.S.C , et seq U.S.C (a) U.S.C (b) STATE STATUTES Conn. Gen. Stat (a) Fla. Stat (2) Fla. Stat (2)(b) Haw. Rev. Stat v

7 Ind. Code Ind. Code (2002) Ind. Code (2004) Ind. Code (2002) Ind. Code (a) (2002) La. Rev. Stat. Ann. 18:562(A)(2) Mich. Comp. Laws Mass. Gen. Laws Chapter 54, N.J. Stat. Ann. 19:31a Neb. Rev. Stat Nev. Rev. Stat N.M. Stat N.M. Stat S.D. Codified Laws Utah Code Ann. 20A vi

8 LEGISLATIVE MATERIALS 148 Cong. Rec. S10491 (2002) (Statement of Sen. Bond)...27 Ind. P.L , MISCELLANEOUS AUTHORITIES Matt A. Barreto, et al., Voter ID Requirements and the Disenfranchisements of Latino, Black and Asian Voters, 2007 American Political Science Ass n Annual Conference, (Sept. 1, 2007)... 8 Greg Borowski, A New Push To Repair Elections, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, May 15, Brennan Center & Michael McDonald, Analysis of the September 15, 2005 Voter Fraud Report Submitted to the New Jersey Attorney General (Dec. 2005)... 1 Brennan Center & Spencer Overton, Response to the Report of the 2005 Commission on Federal Election Reform (Sept. 19, 2005)... 1, 24 Jimmy Carter and James A. Baker III, Voting Reform Is in the Cards, N.Y. Times, Sept. 23, vii

9 Kelly Chesney, Special Letter: Claims That the Dead Voted Were Wrong, Detroit News, Feb. 26, Coalition of Homelessness and Housing in Ohio & League of Woman Voters Coalition, Let the People Vote (2005)... 24, 25 Lisa Collins, In Michigan, Even Dead Vote, Detroit News, Feb. 26, Commission on Federal Election Reform, Building Confidence in U.S. Elections (Sept. 2005) Secretary of State Cathy Cox, The 2000 Election: A Wake-Up Call for Reform and Change (Jan. 2001) DOJ, Election Fraud Prosecutions & Convictions, Oct Sept , 26 Electionline.org, Election Reform: What s Changed, What Hasn t and Why (2006)...32, 34, 35 Electionline.org, Voter ID Laws (Oct. 17, 2006)...34, 35, 36 Hawaii Office of Elections, Chairperson and Voter Assistance Official s Manual (2006) Hawaii Office of Elections, How to Vote at the Polling Place (Nov. 9, 2007) viii

10 M.V. Hood & Charles S. Bullock, Worth a Thousand Words? An Analysis of Georgia s Voter Identification Statute (Apr. 2007)... 8 John Fund, Stealing Elections (2004)...15, 21, 22 Justin Levitt, The Truth About Voter Fraud (Oct. 2007)... 1, 16 Phuong Cat Le & Michelle Nicolosi, Dead Voted in Governor s Race, Seattle Post- Intelligencer, Jan. 7, , 18 Eric Lipton & Ian Urbina, In 5-Year Effort, Scant Evidence of Voter Fraud, N.Y. Times, Apr. 12, Lorraine C. Minnite, An Analysis of Voter Fraud in the U.S. (2007)... 2, 16 Lorraine C. Minnite and David Callahan, Securing the Vote: An Analysis of Election Fraud (2003)...passim Media Matters, John Fund s Book on Voter Fraud Is a Fraud (Oct. 31, 2004) National Conference of State Legislatures, State Requirements for Voter Identification (Feb. 1, 2007)... 34, 37 Spencer Overton, Establishing Procedures for Credible Advisory Commissions (2005) Greg Palast, The Wrong Way to Fix the Vote, Wash. Post, June 10, ix

11 John Pawasarat, The Drivers License Status of the Voting Age Population in Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee (2005)... 9 Press Release, DOJ, Fact Sheet: Department of Justice Ballot Access and Voting Integrity Initiative (July 26, 2006) Preliminary Findings of Joint Task Force Investigating Possible Election Fraud (May 10, 2005) Larry J. Sabato & Glenn R. Simpson, Dirty Little Secrets (1996) Steve Schultze, No Vote Fraud Plot Found, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Dec. 5, Wendy Simmons, Black Americans Feel Cheated by Election 2000, Gallup News Service, Dec. 20, Van Smith, Election Nights of the Living Dead, Baltimore City Paper, June 22, Ian Urbina, Panel Said To Alter Finding on Voter Fraud, N.Y. Times, Apr. 11, Tova Wang, A Rigged Report on U.S. Voting?, Wash. Post, Aug. 30, x

12 INTEREST OF THE AMICI 1 The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law (the Brennan Center ) is a nonpartisan institute dedicated to a vision of effective and inclusive democracy. Through its Voting Rights and Elections project, the Brennan Center seeks to protect rights to equal electoral access and full political participation. The project has extensively addressed issues relating to alleged voter fraud and methods for preventing it, tracking the national experience with legislation relating to election fraud, co-authoring three major reports on the subject, 2 and 1 2 Pursuant to Rule 37.6, amici curiae certify that no counsel for a party authored this brief in whole or in part and that no person or entity, other than amici curiae and their counsel, made a monetary contribution to its preparation or submission. The parties have filed letters consenting to the filing of any amicus curiae brief with the Clerk of the Court. See Justin Levitt, The Truth About Voter Fraud (Oct. 2007), TruthAboutVoterFraud.pdf ( Truth About Voter Fraud ); Brennan Center & Michael McDonald, Analysis of the September 15, 2005 Voter Fraud Report Submitted to the New Jersey Attorney General (Dec. 2005), org/dynamic/subpages/download_file_35010.pdf; Brennan Center & Spencer Overton, Response to the Report of the 2005 Commission on Federal Election Reform (Sept. 19, 2005), available at

13 participating as counsel or amicus in a number of federal and state cases involving voting and election issues. The Brennan Center has participated as amicus in constitutional challenges to statutes requiring photo identification ( photo ID ) as a condition for in-person voting in Georgia and Albuquerque, New Mexico, as well as before the court of appeals in this case. Demos: A Network for Ideas & Action ( Demos ) is a non-partisan public policy research and advocacy center. Its Democracy Program focuses on removing barriers to political participation, especially those affecting traditionally disfranchised populations such as communities of color and lowincome citizens. In 2003 Demos published a report by Lorraine C. Minnite and David Callahan entitled Securing the Vote: An Analysis of Election Fraud (updated most recently in September 2007) that is widely recognized as the most comprehensive survey available of the extent of voter fraud in U.S. elections. Lorraine C. Minnite is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science, Barnard College, Columbia University in New York City. She has written and provided testimony on the incidence of fraud in elections, and is currently finishing a book on the subject. She is co-author of the voter fraud study published by amicus Demos, referred to above, and cited by the district court in this case. download_file_47903.pdf. 2

14 Project Vote is a non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to voter participation in the election process. It assists low-income, minority citizens to register to vote. It has a strong interest in ensuring that the individuals it registers are able to vote and has actively worked to reduce barriers eligible voters face when attempting to register and vote. People for the American Way Foundation ( PFAWF ) is a nonpartisan citizens organization established to promote and protect civil and constitutional rights. It has been actively involved in efforts nationwide to combat discrimination and promote equal rights, including efforts to protect the voting rights of all eligible citizens. PFAWF regularly participates in civil rights litigation, and has participated in litigation to protect the right to vote and prevent the disenfranchisement that occurs when restrictive voter ID laws are enforced. SUMMARY OF THE ARGUMENT The district court and court of appeals, while acknowledging that Indiana had no record of voter impersonation fraud at the polls, erroneously relied upon unfounded assertions about the existence of such voter impersonation fraud elsewhere in the nation as a basis to uphold Indiana s photo ID requirement. In this brief, amici examine the reports relied on by the district court and the court of appeals, as well as nationwide studies of voter fraud. We show that, in fact, there is no more evidence that polling-place impersonation fraud is a problem outside Indiana than there is in Indiana. 3

15 Prior to its enactment of the photo ID law, Indiana already had in place less onerous and more appropriately tailored identification methods, as well as severe criminal penalties to deter impersonation fraud. Moreover, forty-eight states, the District of Columbia and the federal government currently use identification methods that provide less onerous alternatives to photo identification. Absent evidence that polling-place impersonation fraud is a problem in Indiana or anywhere else, Indiana cannot show that there was any need to impose the additional burdens of a photo ID requirement to prevent such fraud. As the court of appeals acknowledged, a photo ID requirement imposes burdens mainly on Indiana s most disadvantaged citizens people low on the economic ladder 3 who make up most of the citizens who do not already possess a driver s license or other acceptable photo identification, and at least some of whom, the court of appeals notes, will be deterred from voting by these burdens. 4 As the court also acknowledged, voters in this demographic group are more likely to vote for Democratic than Republican candidates. 5 Hence, careful scrutiny of Indiana s asserted interest was needed to ensure that the photo ID requirement is not simply the latest device in a Crawford v. Marion County Election Bd., 472 F.3d 949, 951 (7th Cir. 2007). Id. Id. 4

16 long history of voting requirements aimed at suppressing the vote of politically weak or voiceless minorities and a pretext for obtaining a partisan electoral benefit. The district court and court of appeals failed to provide anything approaching careful scrutiny whether denominated strict or heightened to Indiana s claimed need to require photo ID to prevent impersonation fraud. Instead, they relied on documents that in fact refute the existence of impersonation fraud; unconfirmed hearsay reports that have been discredited by formal investigations; unsupported speculation; and supposed perceptions and fear of voter fraud that are unsupported by any evidence and that are easily manipulated. Under our constitutional system the fundamental right to vote cannot be taken away by unfounded perceptions of a majority, whether measured by vote or by opinion poll. As Judge Wood observed in dissenting from the court of appeals denial of en banc rehearing, the facts asserted by the state in support of its voter fraud justification were taken as true without examination to see if they reflected reality. 6 This brief shows that in reality, polling-place impersonation fraud is not a problem and that a photo ID requirement is not needed to prevent it. 6 Crawford v. Marion County Election Bd., 484 F.3d 436, 437 (7th Cir. 2007) (en banc) (Wood, J., dissenting from denial of en banc reconsideration). 5

17 ARGUMENT INDIANA S PHOTO ID REQUIREMENT IS AN UNNECESSARY RESPONSE TO THE EXTREMELY UNLIKELY AND UNSUBSTANTIATED THREAT OF POLLING- PLACE IMPERSONATION FRAUD Burdick v. Takushi, 504 U.S. 428 (1992), requires that, in assessing the constitutionality of election regulations, courts must balance the character and magnitude of the burdens on plaintiffs voting rights against the precise interests put forward by the State and the extent to which those interests make it necessary to burden the plaintiffs rights. 504 U.S. at 434 (quotation marks and citation omitted) (emphasis added). Election laws that impose severe burdens on voters are subjected to strict scrutiny. See id. But even when a law s burdens are less than severe, Burdick does not contemplate application of the deferential rational basis test applicable to social and economic legislation. 7 Rather, in such circumstances, Burdick 7 See, e.g., Reform Party of Allegheny County v. Allegheny County Dep t of Elections, 174 F.3d 305, 315 (3d Cir. 1999) (en banc) (election laws imposing less than severe burdens are analyzed under an intermediate level of scrutiny ); McLaughlin v. N.C. Bd. of Elections, 65 F.3d 1215, 1221 n.6 (4th Cir. 1995) ( a regulation which imposes only moderate burdens could well fail the [Burdick] balancing test when the interests that it serves are minor, notwithstanding that the 6

18 requires the state to demonstrate an important regulatory interest and that regulations addressing this interest are reasonable and nondiscriminatory. 504 U.S. at States, of course, have a compelling interest in preventing voter fraud. Purcell v. Gonzalez, 127 S. Ct. 5, 6-7 (2006). But the broad concept of voter fraud is not the precise interest that Burdick requires be evaluated here. A photo identification requirement addresses only one type of alleged voter fraud: the impersonation of a registered voter at the polls. It is not a remedy for absentee ballot fraud, ballot tampering, voting from two addresses, vote buying or other voter fraud. This critical distinction was repeatedly ignored by the courts below. Moreover, because Indiana already had voter identification methods in place before it enacted the photo ID requirement in 2005, the issue is whether Indiana s interest in preventing polling-place impersonation 8 regulation is rational ); New Alliance Party v. Hand, 933 F.2d 1568, 1576 (11th Cir. 1991) ( Although... the burden imposed... is not insurmountable,... plaintiffs are due to be granted the relief requested because the interests put forth by the defendant do not adequately justify the restriction imposed. ). For this reason, the district court s use of the deferential test of Williamson v. Lee Optical of Oklahoma, 348 U.S. 483, 489 (1955), to evaluate the Indiana voter ID law was error. See Indiana Democratic Party v. Rokita, 458 F. Supp. 2d 775, 829 (S.D. Ind. 2006). 7

19 fraud justified replacing those earlier methods with a more stringent identification requirement that increases the burdens especially for eligible voters who currently lack a photo ID and must obtain one to vote. The circumstances here warrant careful examination of that interest. Absent evidence that Indiana s prior identification methods were insufficient to prevent polling-place impersonation fraud, and that it was therefore necessary to place additional burdens on voters, the interest advanced by Indiana is suspect. As the court of appeals recognized, the burdens of the photo ID requirement fall mainly on low-income citizens who are the most likely to lack such IDs. See Crawford, 472 F.3d at 951. And as the court of appeals also acknowledged, the photo ID requirement will discourage at least some of those people from voting. Id. This disparate impact on the voting rights of low-income citizens a group that is disproportionately made up of people of color 9 increases the need for caution. See Vieth v. 9 See, e.g., Matt A. Barreto, et al., Voter ID Requirements and the Disenfranchisements of Latino, Black and Asian Voters, 2007 American Political Science Ass n Annual Conference 1 (Sept. 1, 2007) (on file with the author) ( immigrant and minority voters were consistently less likely to have each form of identification required under voter ID laws); M.V. Hood & Charles S. Bullock, Worth a Thousand Words? An Analysis of Georgia s Voter Identification Statute 19 (April 2007), 8

20 Jubelirer, 541 U.S. 267, 311 (2004) (Kennedy, J., concurring) (when laws threaten to exclude minority groups from the political process, courts should err on the side of caution ); United States v. Carolene Products Co., 304 U.S. 144, 152 n.4 (1938) (heightened scrutiny is appropriate when laws distinctly burden discrete and insular minority groups that lack sufficient numbers or power to seek redress through the political process). Moreover, as the court of appeals acknowledged, a significant majority of such low income citizens vote Democratic. See Crawford, 472 F.3d at 951. In such circumstances, applying heightened scrutiny helps to ensure that... archives/ga%20voter%20id%20%28bullock%20% 26%20Hood%29.pdf ( Registered voters are significantly less likely to possess a driver s license if they are from minority groups, especially blacks and Hispanics, and if they are older. ); John Pawasarat, The Drivers License Status of the Voting Age Population in Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin Miwaukee (2005), edu/dept/eti/barriers/driverslicense.pdf (noting that [l]ess than half (47 percent) of Milwaukee County African American adults and 43 percent of Hispanic adults have a valid drivers license compared to 85 percent of white adults ; that only 26 percent of African Americans and 34 percent of Hispanics [have] a valid license compared to 71 percent of young white adults ; and that 23 percent of persons aged 65 and over do not have a... drivers license or a photo ID ). 9

21 [electoral] limitations are truly justified and that the State s asserted interests are not merely a pretext for exclusionary or anticompetitive restrictions. Clingman v. Beaver, 544 U.S. 581, 603 (2005) (O Connor, J., concurring in part and concurring in the judgment). 10 Careful scrutiny of Indiana s asserted interest shows that polling-place impersonation fraud is not a 10 Neither Timmons v. Twin Cities New Party, 520 U.S. 351 (1997), nor Munro v. Socialist Workers Party, 479 U.S. 189 (1986), supports a different conclusion. Timmons held that elaborate, empirical evidence of the weightiness of a state s interest was not needed to justify a ballot-access restriction that did not restrict the right of a [party] or its members to vote for anyone they like. 520 U.S. at 363, 364. But here Indiana provides no empirical justification for a law that does directly restrict the right to vote of its most disadvantaged citizens. Munro sustained a ballotaccess restriction, despite no evidence that it addressed an existing problem, because [l]egislatures... should be permitted to respond to potential deficiencies in the electoral process with foresight, rather than reactively, provided that the response is reasonable and does not impinge on constitutionally protected rights. 479 U.S. at (emphasis added). Indiana s law does impinge on constitutionally protected rights and, as we show, is not reasonable because less burdensome laws have proven adequate to prevent polling-place impersonation fraud. 10

22 problem and that Indiana s photo ID requirement is not needed to prevent it. A. Polling-Place Impersonation Fraud Is Highly Unlikely And Exceedingly Rare The record contains no evidence of pollingplace impersonation fraud in Indiana: the State conceded that it was unaware of any incidents of attempted or successful impersonation fraud in Indiana; that no one in Indiana history has been indicted for impersonation fraud; and that no evidence of impersonation fraud was presented to the Indiana legislature during the debate over the photo ID law. See Rokita, 458 F. Supp. 2d at Without citing a single fact, the court of appeals nevertheless concluded that the notorious examples of Florida and Illinois, as well as Michigan, Missouri and Washington State, provide evidence though not much that polling-place voter impersonation is a problem and that it is no less likely to occur in Indiana. Crawford, 472 F.3d at 954. But the record, in fact, demonstrates that such fraud is not a problem in the states listed by the court of appeals or anywhere else in the United States. 1. None of the Examples Cited by the Court of Appeals Indicates That Polling-Place Impersonation Fraud Is a Genuine Problem FLORIDA: The court of appeals never explains why Florida is a notorious example. 11

23 Perhaps this refers to Florida s problems in the 2000 Presidential election. But those problems had nothing to do with impersonation fraud: Florida was notorious, among other things, for poor ballot design, antiquated election machinery, and the exclusion of eligible voters from the registration rolls. There are only two references to Florida in the record. The first is an article from the Miami Herald discussing extensive problems with absentee ballot fraud, vote buying, and voting by ineligible nonresidents in a 1997 Miami election. The only suggestions of impersonation fraud in the article are statements by voters confronted with allegations that they voted in districts where they did not reside, and who responded by saying someone must have voted in their names. The article offers no suggestion that these unconfirmed allegations of impersonation involved polling-place impersonation, rather than absentee ballot fraud or clerical errors. See Rokita, 458 F. Supp. 2d at 826 & n.78 (citing, inter alia, State s Ex. 10 (R. 83, Att. 2)). Tellingly, this 1997 election was overturned on the basis of absentee ballot fraud, without any reference to polling-place impersonation. In re the Protest of Election Returns & Absentee Ballots in the Nov. 4, 1997 Election for the City of Miami, 707 So. 2d 1170, 1172 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1998). The second reference to Florida is a citation to a study by Lorraine C. Minnite and David Callahan entitled Securing the Vote: An Analysis of Election Fraud (2003) ( 2003 Minnite Study ). See Rokita, 458 F. Supp. 2d at 794 (citing State Ex. 6 (R. 82, Att. 3)). This study contains no reference to polling-place 12

24 impersonation fraud in Florida; it discusses absentee ballot fraud in Miami s 1997 mayoral primary and refers to Florida s massive disenfranchisement of eligible, mostly African-American voters in the 2000 Presidential election whose names were erroneously put on felony lists. See id. at ILLINOIS: The court of appeals never explains why Illinois is notorious. The only item in the record concerning Illinois is a 1982 newspaper article describing allegations of fraud in the 1982 gubernatorial election. See Rokita, 458 F. Supp. 2d at 794 (citing State Ex. 13 (R. 83, Att. 5)). The article s main focus is absentee ballot fraud and ballot tampering by election officials. While this article from a quarter of a century ago refers to allegations of voting in Chicago in the name of deceased persons so-called ghost voting the article gives no specific examples of any ghost votes and does not indicate whether the unproven allegations involved in-person, rather than absentee voting, or are a reflection of clerical errors. (See the discussion of Michigan, immediately below.) MICHIGAN: There is nothing in the record or the district court s opinion about any election fraud in Michigan. There were reports of voting irregularities in Michigan in 2004 (not reflected in the record), but these reports indicate the unreliability of reports of impersonation fraud. They include allegations of 132 votes allegedly cast by dead people. However, a follow-up investigation to the initial report indicated that all of these votes involved absentee ballots, 124 of the 132 incidents were incorrectly reported, and no ballots were actually cast by a deceased voter after 13

25 the voter had died. See Kelly Chesney, Special Letter: Claims That the Dead Voted Were Wrong, Detroit News, Mar. 5, Moreover, it appears that in Michigan, as elsewhere, claims of ghost voting are often the result of clerical errors, as when election clerks mistakenly record a vote under the wrong name in post-election record keeping, or have a voter sign the poll book entry of a voter with a similar name. See Lisa Collins, In Michigan, Even Dead Vote, Detroit News, Feb. 26, 2006 ( It s impossible to say whether [purported cases of ghost voting] are names used by someone else to cast fraudulent votes or whether they simply represent clerical errors.... Among the most common mistakes occur when election workers record a vote under a similar name, or confuse voters with their parents or other relatives. ); see also Van Smith, Election Nights of the Living Dead, Baltimore City Paper, June 22, 2005 (discussing likely mistakes involving, e.g., voters with different middle initials and a son confused with his deceased father of the same name) That publicized cases of alleged impersonation fraud often prove baseless upon investigation is illustrated by the district court s reliance on reports of ghost voting in Georgia. See Rokita, 458 F. Supp. 2d at 493 (citing State Ex. 12 (R. 83, Att. 4)). The newspaper article relied on by the district court recounted lurid tales of ballots cast from the grave, including a vote by one Alan Jay Mandel. Further investigation revealed no fire behind the smoke, however: the Georgia Secretary of State determined, in fact, that the votes attributed to 14

26 MISSOURI: The district court cited stories concerning voter fraud in Missouri. See, e.g., Rokita, 458 F. Supp. 2d 794 (citing State Ex. 13 (R. 83, Att. 5)). None of the sources cited by the district court, however, points to any evidence that the alleged impersonation fraud in Missouri was accomplished in-person rather than absentee. See John Fund, Stealing Elections 64 (2004) (State Ex. 2 (R. 79, Att. 1)); 2003 Minnite Study at 43 (State Ex. 6 (R. 82, Att. 3)); Statement of Sen. Kit Bond (State Ex. 7 (R. 82, Att. 4)). Moreover, these allegations were part of a litany of claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2000 election in St. Louis that since have been shown to be almost entirely specious. According to the 2003 Minnite Study, the Missouri Secretary of State s investigation and an investigation by the St. Louis Post Dispatch disclosed such massive errors in official records and so many wrongful accusations of fraud that the alleged voter fraud scandal in St. Louis Mr. Mandel had actually been cast by one Alan Jay Mandell, who was alive and well. As the Secretary stated, a subsequent check of the records by Fulton County staff revealed that the media account was erroneous. Secretary of State Cathy Cox, The 2000 Election: A Wake-Up Call for Reform and Change 11 n.3 (Jan. 2001), election_report.pdf; see also Greg Palast, The Wrong Way to Fix the Vote, Wash. Post, June 10, 2001; Common Cause/Georgia v. Billups, 406 F. Supp. 2d 1326, 1366 (N.D. Ga. 2005) (noting absence of evidence of polling-place impersonation fraud in Georgia). 15

27 looks more like a case of managerial ineptitude and under-funding, and poor implementation of the [National Voter Registration Act] [by] St. Louis and Missouri election officials Minnite Study at This conclusion was later dramatically confirmed. After completion of an F.B.I. investigation, the Department of Justice issued no indictments for voter fraud of any kind. Instead, [t]he Justice Department threatened the Board [of Elections] with a lawsuit for abusing the voting rights of thousands of eligible St. Louis voters by illegally purging their registration records in violation of the National Voter Registration Act. It was these illegal purges that created... the appearance of election irregularities. Lorraine C. Minnite, An Analysis of Voter Fraud in the U.S. 16 (2007), fraud.pdf; see also Truth About Voter Fraud at Most recently, the Supreme Court of Missouri, in striking down a photo ID law under the state constitution, quoted with approval the findings of the trial court that: No evidence was presented that voter impersonation fraud exists to any substantial degree in Missouri. In fact, the evidence that was presented indicates that voter impersonation fraud is not a problem in Missouri. Weinschenk v. State of Missouri, 203 S.W. 3d 201, 217 (Mo. 2006); see also United States v. Missouri, No CV-C-NKL, 2007 WL , at *10 (W.D. Mo. 16

28 Apr. 13, 2007) (noting that the United States had not shown that any voter fraud has occurred in Missouri in action alleging violations of National Voter Registration Act). The Missouri Supreme Court concluded that the [p]hoto ID requirement could only prevent a particular type of fraud that does not occur in Missouri. Weinschenk, 203 S.W. 3d at 218. WASHINGTON STATE: A comprehensive investigation of alleged voter fraud was conducted in Washington State after the bitterly contested 2004 gubernatorial election. See Rokita, 458 F. Supp. 2d at 793, 826 (citing State Ex. 3 (R. 79, Att. 2)); Borders v. King County, No (Wash. Super. Ct. 2005), reprinted in 4 Election L.J. 418 (2005). But this investigation refutes rather than supports claims that polling-place impersonation fraud is a problem. Out of 2,812,675 ballots cast, the investigation uncovered only 19 incidents that could conceivably have involved impersonation fraud, involving alleged voting in the name of the deceased. Id. at 420, 423. Subsequent investigations indicated that most of these ghost voting incidents involved absentee ballots not polling-place impersonation fraud and therefore would not have been prevented by a photo ID requirement. See Phuong Cat Le & Michelle Nicolosi, Dead Voted in Governor s Race, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Jan. 7, 2005 (noting that only one of eight investigated cases of ghost voting involved a voter actually voting at the polls, while the other seven cases involved absentee ballots). A 17

29 county official stated that the cases being investigated were not indications of fraud. Id. 12 Furthermore, even if one or two ghost voting incidents did involve polling-place impersonation fraud, such incidents can be prevented by each State updating its voter rolls on a regular basis as required by federal law. 13 Another article cited by the district court indicates that election officials in Washington had not yet regularly updated the voter rolls by See Rokita, 458 F. Supp. 2d at 826 n.78 (citing State Ex. 15 (R. 83, Att. 7)). 2. The Additional Evidence Cited by the District Court and Other Studies Show That Polling-Place Impersonation Fraud Is Not A Genuine Problem The additional evidence relied on by the district court and other studies also show that polling-place impersonation fraud is not a problem anywhere in the nation. MINNITE STUDY: The district court s reliance on the 2003 Minnite Study is puzzling. See As noted, claims of in-person impersonation fraud are frequently shown to merely reflect clerical errors and poor record keeping. See supra at 12. Under the Help America Vote Act of 2002 ( HAVA ), states are required to implement centralized registration lists, update them regularly, and remove ineligible registrants. See 42 U.S.C (a)(4). 18

30 Rokita, 458 F. Supp. 2d at (citing State Ex. 6 (R. 82, Att. 3) (2003 Minnite Study)). That study is one of the most comprehensive studies of voter fraud allegations to date, 14 but it compels a conclusion exactly opposite to that reached by the district court. The study found that voter fraud of any kind is very rare, is not more than a minor problem and rarely affects election outcomes Minnite Study at 4, 17. Notably absent from the study is any evidence of polling-place impersonation fraud. According to the study, even where election fraud allegations have received significant attention in the news media, the allegations almost invariably proved baseless. Id. at 17, To the limited extent fraud has been detected, the study concludes, it generally takes the form of organized fraud such as vote buying, use of fraudulent absentee or mail-in ballots, ballot box stuffing, or wrongful purging of registration rolls to exclude eligible voters. Id. at Instances of these types of fraud far outweigh incidents of individual fraud. Id. Most importantly, the study concludes that the wrongful disenfranchisement of voters is a far bigger problem than voter fraud. Id. at In the study, Minnite and Callahan reviewed news and legal databases and interviewed attorneys general and secretaries of state in 12 states, representing about half of the national electorate, about incidences of election fraud from 1992 to

31 DOJ REPORT: The district court also mistakenly relied on a Department of Justice ( DOJ ) report on voting fraud. See Rokita, 458 F. Supp. 2d at 793 (citing State Ex. 2 (R. 79, Att. 1)). The report does not contain a single reference to impersonation fraud. An updated version of that report, which describes DOJ s investigation of election fraud since 2002, confirms that impersonation fraud is not a threat to the integrity of elections. See Press Release, DOJ, Fact Sheet: Department of Justice Ballot Access and Voting Integrity Initiative (July 26, 2006), available at 06_crt_468.html ( DOJ Report ). 15 The DOJ Report describes 86 convictions for election-related misconduct over a nearly five-year period, but not a single one of these convictions involved impersonation fraud. See id.; see also Eric Lipton & Ian Urbina, In 5-Year Effort, Scant Evidence of Voter Fraud, N.Y. Times, Apr. 12, The report describes incidents of vote buying, improper use of personal information by local officials, various campaign finance convictions, and harassment to keep voters from the polls. None of these crimes could be prevented by requiring voters to show a photo ID. WISCONSIN: The district court cited a yearlong joint federal and state investigation into an alleged scheme to alter the result of the 2004 election 15 See also DOJ, Election Fraud Prosecutions & Convictions, Oct Sept. 2005, available at n%20fraud%20prosecutions.pdf. 20

32 in Wisconsin, but this investigation also disclosed no evidence of impersonation fraud. See Rokita, 458 F. Supp. 2d at (citing State Ex. 4 (R. 79, Att. 3) (Preliminary Findings of Joint Task Force Investigating Possible Election Fraud (May 10, 2005), available at fraud.pdf)). Indeed, the investigation showed very little evidence of any other type of voter fraud, although it did turn up severe administrative and record keeping problems with the Milwaukee elections board. See id. at 1; see also Greg Borowski, A New Push To Repair Elections, Milwaukee Journal- Sentinel, May 15, 2005 (administrative problems and jumbled records made confirmation [of voter fraud allegations] a near impossibility ). The few incidents that were substantiated involved registration fraud, double voting and voting by ineligible persons with felony convictions, not impersonation fraud at the polls. See Steve Schultze, No Vote Fraud Plot Found, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Dec. 5, SABATO AND FUND: The district court cited two books discussing allegations of voter fraud generally, see Rokita, 458 F. Supp. 2d at (citing Sabato & Simpson, Dirty Little Secrets 292 (1996) ( Sabato ); Fund, Stealing Elections 64 (2004) ( Fund )), but these books contain few allegations of voting irregularities that could even conceivably have been remedied by a photo ID requirement. Sabato, for example, describes thousands of incidents of possible absentee ballot fraud and numerous problems plaguing California s registration rolls. Sabato at But it cites only a single hearsay allegation of attempted polling-place impersonation 21

33 fraud and that was foiled without a photo ID requirement. Id. at 292. Likewise, Fund retails numerous reports of voting by ineligible persons with felony convictions and double voting problems for which requiring a photo ID is no solution. Fund at And, as noted, see supra at 13, though Fund parrots allegations of alleged voting in the name of deceased persons in Missouri, he offers no evidence that any of these involved in-person, rather than absentee, voting or that they were not the result of clerical errors. Fund at 64. Moreover, allegations of impersonation fraud in Missouri have been thoroughly discredited. See supra at 13. CARTER-BAKER COMMISSION: The district court also relied on the report of the Carter- Baker Commission on Federal Election Reform 17 for the proposition that impersonation fraud occurs, and that photo ID requirements are necessary to prevent it. See Rokita, 458 F. Supp. 2d at 794 (citing State Ex. 1 (R. 82, Att. 1) (Commission on Federal Election A review characterizes Fund s book as filled with distortions and half truths and provides a pointby-point refutation of many of Fund s claims. See Media Matters, John Fund s Book on Voter Fraud Is a Fraud (Oct. 31, 2004), org/items/printable/ The Carter-Baker Commission was not a commission of the federal government; it was an independent project organized by American University. 22

34 Reform, Building Confidence in U.S. Elections (Sept. 2005) ( Carter-Baker Report ))). The Commission cites no credible evidence of impersonation fraud, instead simply referring to the since-discredited reports of such fraud in Milwaukee and Washington State. Compare Carter-Baker Report at 2-4, 18 with supra at 14-15, Moreover, as one of the dissenters notes, the Commission did not call as witnesses many of the most established experts on the issue [of voter ID requirements]. A commission s reliance on anecdotes and political sound bites rather than empirical data, testimony by top experts, and rigorous analysis undermines its credibility. Spencer Overton, Establishing Procedures for Credible Advisory Commissions (2005), 18 Finally, reliance on the Carter-Baker Report for support of Indiana s photo ID law is misplaced: the Commission s co-chairs, President Carter and 18 Deficiencies are found in every other article and report cited by the district court. See Rokita, 458 F. Supp. 2d at (citing State Exs (R. 79; R. 82, R. 83)); id. at 826 (citing State Exs. 3-18). Many are newspaper reports of double voting by voters at multiple addresses. See, e.g., State s Exs. 5, 8 (R. 82 Atts. 2, 5). Other exhibits detail voting by persons with felony convictions, some of whom may have been ineligible. See, e.g., State s Exs. 3, 4, 7 & 9 (R. 79, Att. 3; R. 82 Att. 4; R. 83, Att. 1). These problems can only be prevented by an accurate registration list, not by a photo ID requirement. 23

35 Secretary Baker, condemned Georgia s initial photo ID law as discriminatory because it was costly or difficult for poor Georgians. Jimmy Carter and James A. Baker III, Voting Reform Is in the Cards, N.Y. Times, Sept. 23, While they proposed a nation-wide, uniform photo ID, known as the REAL ID, as a requirement for in-person voting, they did so in the hope of remedying the problems created by allowing individual states like Georgia to impose ID requirements. They hoped that the discriminatory burdens of a photo ID requirement could be eliminated if states were obliged to seek out citizens to both register voters and provide them with free ID s that meet federal standards, through a host of affirmative and energetic activities. Id. President Carter s and Secretary Baker s vision ignores the burdens on low-income voters even if the ID itself is free. 19 In any event, the Indiana law which is even more stringent than Georgia s is the antithesis of their vision. 20 COHHIO STUDY: A study of alleged fraud in Ohio which is not in the record further confirms that impersonation fraud is not a problem. See Coalition of Homelessness and Housing in Ohio & League of See Indiana Democratic Party Petitioners Br. at For a full critique of the Carter-Baker Report, including its endorsement of REAL IDs, see generally Brennan Center & Spencer Overton, Response to the Report of the 2005 Commission on Federal Election Reform (Sept. 19, 2005). 24

36 Women Voters Coalition, Let the People Vote 1 (2005), Report.pdf. Researchers interviewed the Director or Deputy Director of each of the state s 88 county Boards of Elections and concluded that voter fraud as a whole was an exceedingly rare occurrence, as evidenced by the fact that, out of a total of 9,078,728 votes cast, there were only four reported instances of ineligible persons voting or attempting to vote in 2002 and 2004, confined to three of the state s 88 counties. Id. at 2. The report does not indicate why the four persons were ineligible, or whether pollingplace impersonation fraud was involved. * * * In sum, the national evidence including the very evidence relied on by the courts below suggests that the type of voting fraud that may be remedied by a photo ID requirement is virtually nonexistent: the problem of voter impersonation is not a real problem at all. The court of appeals nevertheless speculated that the absence of evidence of impersonation fraud might be explained by the endemic underenforcement of minor criminal laws and the difficulty of apprehending a voter impersonator. Crawford, 472 F.3d at 953. But guesswork is misplaced where fundamental rights are at stake: courts should decide voting-rights cases on the basis of facts rather than speculation. Purcell, 127 S. Ct. 25

37 at 8 (2006) (Stevens, J., concurring). 21 Further, the more reasonable explanation for the absence of evidence of polling-place impersonation fraud is that, because such fraud is extremely risky, exposes the perpetrator to severe penalties, 22 and has very little payoff, it rarely occurs The court of appeals statement regarding the underenforcement of minor criminal laws is contradicted by the fact that, since 2002, the Department of Justice has given priority to, and devoted vast resources to, the investigation and prosecution of voter fraud. See DOJ Report (noting establishment in 2002 of initiative requiring expanded efforts to address election crimes and placing a high priority on the investigation and prosecution of election crimes ). In spite of these efforts, DOJ has found not one instance of polling-place impersonation. Voter impersonation in a federal election can result in five years maximum imprisonment and $10,000 maximum fines. See 42 U.S.C. 1973i(c). Under Indiana law, impersonation fraud is punishable as a Class D felony by three years maximum imprisonment, and $10,000 maximum fines. See Ind. Code , (a). Notably, the court of appeals posited that some voters are likely to be discouraged from voting rather than incur the time and trouble to obtain a photo ID, because a single vote supposedly has a low instrumental value i.e., voters believe their individual vote will not determine the election s outcome. See Crawford, 472 F.3d at 951. But if 26

38 The court of appeals also opined that Indiana s inflated voter registration rolls created an acute danger of impersonation fraud. Crawford, 472 F.3d at 953. But central to Congress s enactment of HAVA was the conviction that states maintenance of accurate, updated registration lists is the best remedy for the dangers created by inflated, outdated registration lists. Indiana citizens should not be burdened with photo ID requirements to remedy a speculative threat created by Indiana s failure to comply with federal law. The court of appeals dismissed Congress s remedy as ineffectual, without any basis in fact and contrary to the views of Congress and election experts. See, e.g., 148 Cong. Rec. S10491 (2002) (statement of Sen. Bond) (noting that HAVA requires states to set up a computerized, statewide voter registration system to maintain the names of all registered, eligible voters [and eliminate the risk that rolls will contain] the names of people who have left the jurisdiction, who are not eligible to vote because of their status as a felon, who are deceased or who are not eligible to vote in that jurisdiction for any number of reasons ). that is true, impersonation fraud is likely to be discouraged by the severe penalties for such conduct, because there would be little reason to incur such great risks for a payoff of such low instrumental value. 27

39 B. Alleged Perceptions Or Fears of Voter Fraud Do Not Justify Indiana s Photo ID Requirement The district court advanced an alternative justification for the photo ID requirement that is equally unpersuasive: Indiana s interest in responding to public perceptions or fears of voter fraud. In upholding the photo ID requirement, the district court credited several polls indicating voter concern about election fraud and support for photo identification requirements at the polls. Rokita, 458 F. Supp. 2d at 794. The court s reliance on these public opinion polls was wrong for several reasons. First, none of the cited polls reflects any public concern with polling-place impersonation fraud. See Rokita, 458 F. Supp. 2d at 794 (citing State Exs (R. 84, Atts. 2-4)). A Gallup poll relied on by the district court showed that two-thirds of Americans had little confidence in the fairness of the 2000 Presidential election and that 68% of African Americans felt cheated after that election. See Rokita, 458 F. Supp. 2d at 794 (citing State Ex. 23 (R. 84, Att. 3) (Wendy W. Simmons, Black Americans Feel Cheated by Election 2000, Gallup News Service, Dec. 20, 2000)). Much of this sentiment reflected concerns that valid votes would not be counted and was entirely unconnected to any threat of impersonation fraud. See Simmons at 6. The only poll relied on by the district court which manifested public support for photo ID laws does not identify which of those surveyed were voters who already had drivers licenses and other acceptable photo IDs and for whom a photo ID requirement imposes virtually 28

40 no burden, and which, if any, were disadvantaged voters who do not have photo IDs and who must incur the burdens of obtaining one to vote. See Rokita, 458 F. Supp. 2d at 794 (citing State Ex. 22 (R. 84, Att. 2)). The majority of voters already have acceptable photo IDs. It is therefore not surprising that many of them would unthinkingly support such a requirement without considering the effects it might have on voting by disadvantaged citizens who lack photo IDs. Second, perceptions and fears of voter fraud are subject to manipulation and hence unreliable The perception of voter fraud is very different than the appearance of corruption that is the basis for upholding campaign finance restrictions. As this Court recognized, the ability to regulate activity protected by the First Amendment must be supported by evidence justifying the precise fear, which must in turn justify the regulation. In Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1 (1976), and then later in McConnell v. Federal Election Commission, 540 U.S. 93 (2003), the Court repeatedly cited the extensive factual record of corruption that Congress had compiled to justify the regulation of particular acts of campaign finance, and even then it sufficed only where it imposed merely a marginal restriction on protected activity. See Buckley, 424 U.S. at 20-21; McConnell, 540 U.S. at , , In contrast, there is no factual record of any impersonation fraud supporting an appearance of such fraud that would justify Indiana s regulation. Moreover, with respect to campaign finance regulation, the appearance of corruption is inherent in a system 29